Spike had almost made it back to the DeSoto when he caught the heartbeat. He inhaled and smelled her, the smell of vanilla, cinnamon, sunshine, power, and something that could only be her. He wondered how long she'd been there listening to him talk to his sire. He supposed it didn't really matter but it was bloody well rude. He debated on what to do. She'd just called him names and then left him, after all. So he decided to finish the walk to the car and if she didn't stop him, he'd just drive off. He might love the chit, but he wasn't going to beg for scraps, not anymore. He had just put his hand on the door handle when she called out.

"Spike," Buffy said in a low, sad voice. For a long second, he just stood there and she didn't know if he was going to ignore her and drive off anyway. Eventually, he turned around and eyed her wearily.

"Slayer," he replied, short and to the point. He didn't really have much else to say.

"Can we talk?"

"Thought that was what we were doing," he said, and it felt wrong to Buffy. Usually, if he said something like that, he'd say it with a quirked eyebrow and some teasing in his voice. This time though, it was just flat and devoid of any emotion, which was just not like Spike.

'It's your own stupid fault, you're the one that said such mean things to him. What did you expect? You have one chance to make this better or you might lose him. He told Dru he wouldn't leave but that doesn't mean he'll be happy to stay, or that he couldn't easily change his mind and go.'

Buffy pointed to the picnic table that was across the street. She thought it was weird to have a park right across the street from a cemetery, but who was she to judge? "I mean, can you sit down with me? I have something to say."

"Lead the way," he said and moved his hands in a gentlemanly way, offering her the lead to the park.

She went and heard his footsteps following. She should have felt weird about the fact that a soulless vampire was at her back, and in fact she did, in her body. The tinglies that meant 'vampire' were going off like crazy and if it was anyone other than Spike, it would spell danger. With Spike though, it felt almost comforting, safe. She was probably the worst Slayer there ever was but she couldn't feel bad about it.

She knew he cared about her, and she couldn't lie to herself anymore–she was falling for him too. She didn't believe she loved him like she'd said in that dream. It felt nothing like what she'd felt for Angel, before everything went bad, anyway. She knew she cared, though, and she was willing to take a chance but she was going to take things slow. When they sat down, Buffy wasn't sure where to start. Well, that wasn't true. She knew she had to apologize, but she and words were unmixy and she always ended messing things like that up.

"What did you want to talk about, Slayer?" he asked in the same devoid-of-emotion tone Buffy was starting to hate.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted out, knowing she had to say more but not knowing what to say. Spike's eyes widened in surprise when she apologized but he otherwise stayed quiet and didn't move. "I panicked, I didn't mean what I said. I was just so sure I couldn't give us a chance that I knew I had to say something that was really mean so the door on us would close, you know? But then I was like 'Why do I have to push him away?' Just because no one would like me with another vampire? So what? It's my life, no matter how short it will probably be, so I should make the most of it. I mean I'm the Slayer, I already have one death under my belt, and I should be grabbing chances at happiness by the horns. Then there was this dream. It really threw me for a loop because wow, it's not like you'd ever choose to save me over Drusilla, and like, you don't love me. So I was way with the confused. I'm just sorry, I didn't want to hurt you and I want to try us out, but I want to take it slow. Like way slow, almost as slow as a turtle. No, a snail. Well maybe not that slow but definitely slow, like the slowest. Because I'm not ready for anything too…."

"Slayer!" He said as he put his hands on top of hers. She was glad he stopped her because she had a feeling that if he hadn't, she would have broken her own record for babbling because she was just getting started. "Was Angelus in this dream?"

"Oh, yeah. It was a wiggy one. Drusilla and I were tied on stakes like they used to do to witches, you know? And you were there too, and Angelus…." She trailed off when it was clear that Spike was freaked out, then she realized what was happening. "You had the same dream?"

"Yeah, suppose I did."

"So you did choose to save me over Drusilla?" She asked in a voice so small she couldn't recognize it as her own.

"Wasn't really even a choice for me, it was instinct. I tried to find a way to save you both but I couldn't. Sadistic prick probably got off on it."

"You think Angelus was really in the dream too?"

"Don't know, do I? Didn't think you were really there either but…" he trailed off with a shrug.

"That's true. I wonder what it means, I guess we should tell Giles." They were both carefully avoiding talking about the end of the dream, where they'd both declared their love for one another. They decided without saying anything to leave that part out of the retelling to Giles too.

Spike shrugged again. "Sure, let's go tell him," he said as he was getting up.

"Wait!" Spike sat back down and looked curiously at her. "That's it? I mean it's not like the dream is all I talked about," she said shyly. She was kinda putting herself out there and now she was wondering if she'd made a mistake. Spike wasn't even going to talk about it if she hadn't called out to him. She stopped that line of thought when Spike grabbed her hands. She felt something shoot through her at the contact, she didn't know what it was but she liked it.

"Buffy, I wish you had just talked to me like this in the first place, even if you were telling me you didn't want anything with me. We both have a bit of a temper, yeah? So I get it, but just try to talk to me in the future, okay? Course I forgive you, kitten. I'm fine going slow if that's what you need, long as there's more snogging in our future," he finished with a leer.

"Snogging? Oh, you mean the smoochies? Yes, please. More of that," she said with what she hoped was a flirty smile. Less than a second later, Spike's mouth was on hers. They went on like that for a long while, and when she finally pulled back she looked at her wristwatch and her eyes went wide. "We've been doing this for over an hour! On top of however long those battles took us, I think it's time to get back. Giles is probably worried by now, and we have a lot to tell him."

"Sure luv, let's go. Plus your mum said she'd wait up for us. Don't wanna worry Joyce." Buffy looked at Spike with mirth and affection in her eyes. "What?" he barked defensively.

"You like my mom, it's cute."

"Oi! I'm not cute! But of course I like Joyce, she's a right fine lady. Reminds me of my mum."

They got up and started walking toward the DeSoto. Buffy could tell by his voice and defensive posture that he didn't want to talk about his mom so she didn't ask more. For now, anyway. They held hands the entire drive to Giles's and didn't let go until they got there. Spike looked at her a little hurt when she pulled her hand away but she decided to wait until they'd left to explain why she'd pulled away. Buffy walked right in like she always did, and Spike followed. Giles was on the phone but quickly made excuses to whoever was on the other end of the line and hung up when he saw the two come in.

"You were gone for quite a while! How was patrol? You both look a little beat up. Did you run into anything worth mentioning?"

"It wasn't one big thing, it was lots of smaller things, but actually, yeah some of them weren't so small. So maybe a few big things. Angelus is setting us up. When we got to the cemetery there were a bunch of vamps. We took them out, no problem, but that was only round one."

"Round one?"

"Yeah, there ended up being four rounds. There was a pal.. a pale…" Buffy looked to Spike instead of messing up the name herself.

"Palgara demon, and three Vahrall demons, and a bloody Chaos demon with some minions sprinkled in for good measure."

"Are you two all right?"

"Yeah, we don't think he was trying to kill us. Anyway, that's not even why we came here to talk to you tonight before we went home."

"Then what is the reason you came? Though I do want to talk more about the demon attack."

"Spike and I shared a dream a few days ago. We didn't realize it until tonight though."

"What was this dream about?"

"Angelus had both Dru and I tied up ready to have us killed by setting us on fire. Spike only had time to save one of us, and he had to decide who to save. He chose to save me and we watched Drusilla burn." Spike shivered at the thought of Dru burning, and Giles looked at him speculatively while absently taking off his glasses and cleaning them. Spike felt unnerved by Giles's stare. He was looking at Spike like he'd already sussed out his feelings for Buffy. Going by Buffy's actions at the front door, he got that she didn't want that public knowledge for some stupid bloody reason.

"Spike, you were there to make that choice?"

"Yeah, came to myself in the dream and I was just looking at Dru and Buffy tied up with a gleeful Angelus between the two. I didn't even think about it, just knew I had to save her. Type of thing Angelus lives for."

"Giles, do you think maybe Angelus was in the dream too?"

"Possibly, though I'm not sure. That'll take some research, I don't know why you two would be sharing dreams in the first place, let alone with someone else. Maybe it was a spell made by Angelus to see where Spike's alliances really lay."

"Angelus doesn't really like magic but that would make sense. In the dream when I asked if he was really willing to let Dru die, he said something like 'I'm not worried, you'll always save Dru.'"

"Hmm, interesting. As I said, I need to do some research to know anything for definite."

"Okay, well I thought it was something you should know. That's why we came here before going home. Mom's waiting up for us, though, so we better get going."

"Yes, of course, Buffy. We have an early day tomorrow anyway. I'll see you two at the vineyard tomorrow morning."

"Goodnight Giles, stay safe."

"You too. Goodnight Buffy, Spike."

Spike nodded at the watcher and they made their way back to the car in silence. Buffy found the silence awkward but that's because she knew Spike was upset. She just had to figure out a way to make him understand that it had nothing to do with him or how she felt about him. Finally, after talking to herself for so long that they were almost home, she opened her mouth to explain.

"Don't worry about it, Slayer. I understand."

Well, that took the wind right out of her sails! and she was pretty sure he didn't understand because if he did, his shoulders wouldn't still be so tight and he wouldn't still sound so distant from her. She'd never noticed before but Spike could be really sensitive. She wondered what had happened in his life to make him that way.

"I don't think you do. I don't want to hide us from people. It was just way too late to have a two-hour conversation that I know will happen once it comes out. Plus, is it so wrong to want to keep this between us until we actually figure out what this is?" After a few seconds, Spike's shoulders lost their tension and he reached over to grab her hand.

"No luv, that's fine. I'm sorry, I'm just being a ponce. I get it, you don't have to tell anyone you don't want to. You just told me you wanted to take this slow and I'm already pushing you. Sorry, kitten."

"That's not really what I meant by taking things slow. I just know they'll worry, especially with what happened to my last vampire boyfriend. It's better to wait until this whole Angelus problem is handled, then we can tell them." Spike tensed up at the mention of her last vampire lover but after a second calmed down and squeezed her hand then looked over to her with a quirked eyebrow.

"Is that what I am? Your boyfriend?" Buffy felt a blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Uh well, I mean sure, I guess. If that's what you want to be." She said, trying to play it cool but she was failing. Spike couldn't help but give her a loving smile. He found her 'Buffyisms' adorable.

"Then that's what I am. Sounds bloody marvelous to me, sweets." Buffy didn't say anything but squeezed his hand in return. The rest of the ride home was made in silence, this time a lot less awkward than the beginning of the ride.